Contemporary Composition Seminar Fall 2012 Instructor: Prof. SIGMAN Thursday 14:00-16:00 Lecture II

0. Assignments Submission? [3 favourite pieces, ` ]

Stockhausen: Points/Groups/Moments

0. Messiaen’s Influence

Mode de valeurs et d’intensités ( ) Pitch, rhythmic, dynamic, and articulation organisation: 3 pitch modes (not series!), fixed in register and overlapping 3 overlapping additive rhythmic series 12 attacks 7 dynamics (ppp-fff) Full range of piano used Parallel, disjunct layers (leaps)

I. Kreuzspiel (1951) First post-student piece by Stockhausen For oboe, bass clarinet, piano, and 3 percussion

Kreuzspiel: Pitch and Rhythmic Organisation 1 pitch series Multiple additive rhythmic series

Kreuzspiel: Form and Process Title: literally, “cross-play” Introduction (mm ): statement of series in trichords; redistribution across 7 octaves Phase I: (mm ): extreme registers-> equal distribution -> extreme registers Phase II (mm ): middle register -> equal distribution -> middle register Phase III (mm. 141-end): Phase I and Phase II processes, juxtaposed

Kreuzspiel: Sign-Posts 1) Changes in tempo 2) Changes in percussion (toms/tumba impulses to cymbals) = decreasing importance of durational series; noise dislocated from piano to percussion 3) percussion attacks on each pitched in new register

Related Piece: Boulez, Polyphonie X ( ) for 18 soloists

Polyphonie X Parallels Overlapping, disjunct pitch series Controlled by independent rhythmic series Klangfarbenmelodie Vertical and horizontal density control

II. The WDR and Information Theory

A. Werner Meyer-Eppler ( )

Meyer-Eppler and Information Theory Phonetician, physicist, acoustician Inventor of electronic instruments Stockhausen, König, and Eimert attended his classes Influential articles: 1) “Statistic and Psychological Problems of Sound” 2) “Musical Communication as a Problem of Information Theory”

Information Theory Principles 1. Noise-Tone Continuum: statistical properties of sound should be embraced, not avoided in music (e.g., via filtered noise) 2. Information Entropy: behaviour of local events in a larger, closed system; sound- events do not exist in isolation! 3. Markov-Chain Models: predictive, weighted models at all levels of scale

Markov Chain Example

Information Theory Applications Voice synthesis Electronic music Speech perception Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Computer Science

B. Stockhausen, Elektronische Studie II (1954) Introduction of noise/impurities to sound material Amplitude and frequency controlled via global envelopes/shapes, rather than individually = statistical approach to structuring sound Noise-tone scale Amplitude scale Rhythmic density scale

Voice Synthesis in Studie II 1)source-filter model 2) study of transients (noise components) in speech 3) Speech resemblance gradient

Studie II Score Example

C. Gruppen ( ) For 3 orchestras (3 conductors)

Meyer-Eppler Influence Noise-tone continuum: orchestra divided into: 1) sound-groups (winds, strings, brass); 2) noise-groups (percussion); 3) transitional groups (piano, celeste, bells) “Formants”: divisive, NOT additive rhythm Contours/Shapes: applied to pitch/rhythmic events, and position in space Material organised into groups/events, NOT as points!

4 Types of Envelopes 1) acceleration -> upper formants-> slow pulsation (ex) reh , orch. 1) 2) statistical, dense attack -> periodic reverberation (ex) reh , orch. 2) 3) swell/accumulation/crescendo -> fusion across orchestras (ex) ) 4) periodic or aperiodic iterative internal structure (like a drum-roll)

Extension of Serialism

Control Parameters Proportions (section durations) Position in space Pitch –events Rhythmic density (formants)

III. Kontakte: From Groups to Moments

A. Kontakte ( ) For 4-channel electronics and (optional) piano and percussion Percussion: point of “contact” between abstract (electronic) and familiar (instrumental) sound Realised at Westdeutcher Rundfunk (West German Radio) Cologne

Experiment Listen to these 2 sections, played in 2 different orders. Which section is longer?

Moment-Form Higher-level, coherent, and unchangeable structured units Diverse durations (from ca. 10 seconds to 2+ minutes) Order of moments may be shifted/permuted (as for a pitch series) in a piece Kontakte, Mikrophonie I, Carré, Momente

Control Parameters Continuum: Pulse-> Rhythm-> Pitch (pulse- train synthesis 7-octave scale Duration scale Structural proportion scale Amplitude envelopes Position in space “it’s about ‘6’” “it’s about pitch”

Equipment Potentiometers Band-pass filters Reverberator Pulse/square-wave generators Sine-tone generators Tape recorders (for looping and delay) Ring modulator Rotation table (for spatialisation)

Score Excerpt

IV. Gottfried Michael König (b. 1926)

A. König vs. Stockhausen WDR Köln studio in the 1950s Compared to Stockhausen, König took a more “purist” approach to the use of electronics Compositional process and techniques generally more important for König than musical surface Radical and rigorous approach to analog technology Continued to use studio several years longer than Stockhausen

B. Terminus I (1962) One of 2 final pieces realised in WDR studio by König Source material: bank of sine waves Applies serial principles to electronics derivation chain “family tree” structure Order of events in piece does not reflect order of their production

For Next Week: Listen to Gruppen with the score I will post the score and recording to: x.htm x.htm